da poker： World Cup flop Mahela Jayawardene believes that a break away from the gamewill help him recharge his batteries and rediscover his batting form
CricInfo01-Apr-2003World Cup flop Mahela Jayawardene believes that a break away from the gamewill help him recharge his batteries and rediscover his batting form.© ReutersThe 25-year-old right-hander has been dropped from the national squad aftera disastrous World Cup campaign that saw him amass just 21 runs in seveninnings.Prior to the tournament he had been billed as one of the tournament’spotential stars having scored heavily for Sri Lanka since establishing hisplace after the 1999 World Cup.”Obviously, not playing is disappointing,” he said. “But the break is mostwelcome as I can look back and iron out whatever is wrong in my game andcome back wiser and stronger. This will help me relax and recharge myselfand make a fresh start.”He was not surprised by his omission from the Sharjah squad: “Obviously ifyou are not doing well, you have to be replaced. And on that score, Ibelieve I cannot complain.”He is still struggling to pin-point what went wrong in South Africa.”I got two half centuries in the warm-up games but I think, as the World Cupprogressed, I did not spent sufficient time in the middle,” he said.© CricInfo”I kept batting well in the nets, so it is hard for me to really pin-pointwhat went wrong. However, the fact that it was a World Cup was making me tryharder and it could be that I was trying too hard.He scotched suggestions that his high-profile involvement with a campaign toraise funds for the development of a cancer hospital had provided adistraction.”When I play cricket I stay focused on the game, nothing comes between meand the game at that stage. When I am free, yes, I do pay attention to thehospital project.”However, when I am away at cricket, there are others who are entrusted tolook after the project. This had no bearing whatsoever.”© CricInfoUnfortunately, the domestic tournament has now been completed, meaning thatJayawardene will lack competitive cricket as he tries to find form in timefor the New Zealand Test series.”It is unfortunate that the domestic tournament is over. I will have tostart batting at the nets and do it with a lot of application.”However, there are two warm-up games against New Zealand, so I guess if Iget at least one game, maybe I will be able to make some runs and hopefullythat should help.”He expects to break back into the side sooner rather than later: “I believethat the lack of runs I went through will be temporary and I will be able toget back to what I like doing best – scoring runs for Sri Lanka.”Jayawardene has been backed by former teammate and current selector,Aravinda de Silva, who believes that he’s Sri Lanka’s best batsman.”I personally feel that he just needs a break from continuous cricket,” saidde Silva at a press conference on Monday.”He obviously went through a bit of a hard time but I believe he is our bestbatsman. I can not see any technical problems so it must be more of a mentalthing.”